The Joy of Geek Podcast, Episode 60:Annihilation Review and Spoilercast, Lady Bird, and More

On this episode of The Joy of Geek Podcast, we (Rich and Kevin) dive headlong into the "shimmer” to discuss the new film Annihilation. This is director Alex Garland’s highly-anticipated follow-up to 2015’s Ex Machina, and it stars Natalie Portman as a former soldier turned biologist on a mission to save her husband - and possibly all of mankind - from a mysterious shimmering cloud that threatens to consume the earth. And if that brief synopsis sounds a bit hard to pin down, there’s good reason: Annihilation is amind-bending Sci-Fi journey of the first order, full of challenging questions and unsettling answers. But is it a good film?

To answer that question, we are initiating the SPOILERCAST protocol (or in other words, we’ll be discussing Annihilation in full detail - so if you haven’t seen the film yet, consider this a SPOILER WARNING). We’ll take a look at the film from all angles, including the cast of characters, important story beats, overarching themes, music, and performances, and also discuss some of the real-worldchallenges Garland faced in trying to bring his vision to the big screen (after all, Annihilation is being released direct to Netflix in most of the world).

And if that wasn’t enough, we round out the episode with a look at what we’ve been watching and reading lately, including our (arguably very late) thoughts on Lady Bird, Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams vs. Black Mirror, Redneck by Donny Cates, and more. We also discuss the recently announced DC Comics Black Labelimprint and some of the titles and creators that have us excited for its launch.

So join us, as as we enter into a universe full of twisted flora and fauna, meet the scariest bear of all time, and are forced to question the very nature of human existence. This...is the Joy of Geek!